Chesapeake's deep bench pays off as club continues championship bid

Losing a player the caliber of Paul Gait would devastate a lot of teams in the U.S. Club Lacrosse Association. Toss in injuries to Mark Millon and Tom Marechek and many teams already would be looking ahead to next season.

But not the Chesapeake-Toyota Lacrosse Club.

A deep and talented bench enabled Chesapeake to shrug off its breaks and bruises and post a 17-1 record heading into today's South Division championship at 3 p.m. at Loyola College.

If Chesapeake gets past the Philadelphia LC as it did during its two regular-season meetings, it will advance to next weekend's Final Four at Cabrini College, near Philadelphia.

There, Chesapeake would take on the winner of the matchup between the Yankee Division-champion Brine Outlaws and the Metro Division runner-up North Hampstead LC.

"We have a lot of big stars on our team, but no big egos," said Chesapeake midfielder Brendan Kelly, whose team is feeling confident coming off last Sunday's 26-5 win over the Maryland LC.

"We really have great chemistry, and Coach [Dan] Llewellyn deserves a lot credit for keeping everyone involved and letting everyone contribute. The team has a great attitude and we're all having a good time."